Barrier Free Saskatchewan, Facebook Post, August 23, 2021 Canadian Transportation Agency to hold virtual hearing to address Air Canada’s online booking system. Since Air Canada launched its new website in January 2017, Lui Greco has had difficulty using their online booking system. Blind since birth, Greco uses a screen reader, computer software that enables people…
CBC News, British Columbia, July 18, 2021 The Sm’algyax braille alphabet created by Harris Mowbray is now available to the public online as a series of illustrations that correspond to characters conventionally used to write Sm’algyax, the traditional language of the Ts’msyen people in northern B.C. Harris Mowbray has never been to Prince Rupert, B.C.,…
Mark A. Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind, July 2021 Tonight, we, as blind people organized in a civil rights movement, come to our own moment of reflection. We cannot remove ourselves from the nation in which we live. We cannot deny the influence of the pressures, perspectives, barriers, and inequities of that nation,…
Wayne Antle, president of the Ottawa-Gatineau Chapter of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, Ottawa Citizen, April 10, 2021 Wayne Antle, president of the Ottawa-Gatineau Chapter of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, disagrees with Ottawa Council’s enthusiasm for e-scooters. Shared e-scooters will make Ottawa’s streets and sidewalks more dangerous. Sharing public space…
Joe Orozco, blog There’s never been a better time to be blind, or so I’ve heard. And I have to ask: How low have we dropped the bar? I was recently chatting with a friend. I forget exactly how the subject came up, but we found ourselves discussing blind people and entry level jobs. I…
Justin Salisbury, Braille Monitor, April 2021 In our movement, we have often resisted the idea that there is such a thing as blind culture. I am certain that there will be people reading this article to whom I personally have parroted the talking points about how there is no such thing as blind culture. I…
Gordon Dingle, Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians Prior to 1941 numerous independent associations of the blind existed across local Canadian communities. The Manitoba League of the Blind (Winnipeg), however, called for meetings between 1941 and 1943 with the London Association of the Blind of Ontario and other interested parties. These same groups met again…
Richard Raycraft, CBC News, March 7, 2021 $4 million cut comes as shock to those who rely on services to curb isolation during pandemic. Advocates for Canadians with disabilities related to reading printed text have launched a protest campaign after the federal government abruptly announced it would cut their funding, a surprise move they say…
Kristy Kirkup, Ottawa, The Globe and Mail, March 3, 2021 An advocacy group for blind Canadians is accusing the federal government of negligence after the organization applied for a funding program to support people living with disabilities through an online process it says was not accessible to those with visual impairments. The Alliance for Equality…
Peter Slatin, NFB Braille Monitor, March 2021 Crowded sidewalks and roadways have a few benefits to the blind: motion provides clues to what is happening. Before the pandemic, when I approached a corner I could hear whether other pedestrians were walking in the same direction, stopping, slowing or hurrying. I could hear cars traveling in…
